Michelle Duster is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

author and public historian. She is known for her work to preserve the legacy of her great-grandmother,

Ida B. Wells Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, sociologist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advance ...

Early life and education

Michelle Duster was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

to Maxine Duster and Donald L. Duster on December 20, 1963. Her father worked for

Comed Commonwealth Edison, commonly known by syllabic abbreviation as ComEd, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, and the primary electric provider in Chicago and much of Northern Illinois. Its service territory stretches roughly from Iroquois ...

, and her mother was an English teacher and civic leader. She is the paternal great-granddaughter of

. Growing up in Chicago's South Side, Duster began writing from an early age. While in high school, she entered essay contests and was a writer for the school newspaper. In 1985, she obtained her B.A. in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. She went on to obtain an M.A. in Media Studies from

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

Career

Duster has worked to preserve Ida B. Wells' legacy both through written publications and public history projects. She has written one children's book, ''Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist, and Anti-lynching Civil Rights Leader'' and one young adult biography, ''Ida B. The Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy Of Ida B. Wells'', about her great-grandmother. She has also edited two anthologies of Wells' writing. She received the Multi-Generational Activist Award from the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Human Rights Commission in 2019, and the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award from her alma mater,

Selected bibliography

Children's literature

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Anthologies edited

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References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American women writers Dartmouth College alumni The New School alumni Ida B. Wells {{US-historian-stub